Fall 2003 Issue

The Synopsis of the Last SCSCLS Board Meeting Minutes
by Terri Leszczyszyn

Held: October 11, 2003

Present was Terri Leszczyszyn, Michelle Mantooth, Vivian Smith, and Ruby Sonnett.. It was called to order at 12:30 p.m. by Vivian Smith, President, at the Lizard's Thicket restaurant in Columbia.

Terri Leszczyszyn reported and submitted to the Board the Treasurer's report. The Janus money market, where all the CD funds are now is not losing money. It is making about 1% interest. Janus is named in a New York lawsuit with market timing improprieties. We will look now for another money market company in the event Janus crumbles. Our money market funds should be o.k. The report 2/17/03 - 10/10/03 reflects that we have $4364.68 total income minus expenses. We have a total of $10,310.39 with $7126.73 of it in our checking for SCSCLS. We also have $3183.66 in a reserve account. It was decided that because we are continuing to reduce our funds that we may cut paying the per diem and travel to events.

SC is hosting the Region III meeting this year. The meeting will be held at the Courtyard by Marriott on Lockwood Blvd. in Charleston. The Region III Fall Meeting is scheduled for November 14-16, 2003. It begins Friday evening with a buffet supper at 7pm at the Courtyard. Business meetings will be held Saturday from 8:30am to 5pm with a continental breakfast, deli lunch, and afternoon break. They will go on a harbor dinner cruise Saturday evening. Sunday will complete the meetings from 8:30am to Noon with a continental breakfast.

The meeting is open to the public, but only the President and President-Elect are allowed to vote on any issues. Since we do not presently have a President-Elect, Vivian, our SCSCLS President, can appoint a second voting member for us.

Lexington Hospital is opening a new MT school with Ann Beaman as program director.

Ann Smith volunteered by e-mail to do a phone survey of our membership. Michelle has done a written mailed survey which got about a 5% response rate. Maybe Ann can use that framework for the phone one and hopefully get a better response. Ruby suggested calling labs and do a survey regarding upcoming employees. Ruby also stated that she would get SCETV to try to raise lab tech awareness of the shortage and its effects.

Because the 2004 CCC meetings are very far for us - 4 - 6 hours one way - SCSCLS wanted to request that Vivian and Michelle be contacted by e-mail instead. Unless AMT from SC can chair CCC, there won't be one in SC.

Ruby gave Terri the March Awards list given at this March's CCC. Ruby got a plaque for Member Of the Year at nationals in Philadelphia.

There was no report on membership development. Apathy and declining membership was brought up. It is a national crisis.

The Probe, our newsletter on the web, received a plaque for honorable mention.

The next meeting will be January 17 at the Lizard's Thicket Airport Blvd. again. Vivian will contact us as to when.

The keynote address was given by Lib Willis Fowler. And the endnote address was given by Dr. Glenda Price on "Unity within our Diversity". A topic applicable to our profession. Awards were presented from the individual societies to deserving individuals. Board Meetings were scheduled on Wednesday, March 26 from 10:00-Noon with the annual Business Meetings on Thursday, March 27 from 5:00-6:30 pm. Scientific Assembly meetings were held on Wednesday late in the afternoon and education Scientific Assembly meeting was held on Friday.

Continuing education credits were given for all sessions. There were student activities scheduled and they were very welcome to partake of all education sessions and visit the exhibit hall. The student Business meeting and Pizza Party was held on Thursday.

The wine and cheese reception was held on Wednesday evening to honor the vendors exhibiting at the CCC meeting. Also was a past President's luncheon by invitation. Past and current presidents from SCSCLS, SCSSAMT. NCSCLS, and NCSSAMT were invited to the luncheon and was sponsored by INFOLAB, Inc.

INCOME
	210	Active Members	$694.00
	410	Advance Magazine	201.00
	601	Spring Meeting	1354.00
	701	Checking Interest	6.00
		_DivInc	8.00
		RlzdGain	-792.00
TOTAL INCOME			$1471.00
EXPENSES
	210	Membership Development Exp	31.00
	250	PACE Exp	250.00
	401	Region III Dues Exp	195.00
	503	National Delegation Exp	2368.00
	601	Spring Meeting Seed Exp	500.00
TOTAL EXPENSES			$3344.00

TOTAL INCOME - EXPENSES $ -1873.00

The 2002-2003 SCSCLS Awards and Scholarship Committee presented four awards and one scholarship at the joint South Carolina and North Carolina spring meeting in Greenville, SC. The award recipients were announced immediately preceding the keynote address on March 26, 2003.

Omicron Sigma

Omicron Sigma is the President's Honor Roll for outstanding service during the past year. Each award recipient was presented with a ribbon to wear for the remainder of the meeting. The recipients for the state Omicron Sigma awards are as follows:

State recipients:
Shirley J. Adams
Marion Boatwright
Mary Breci
Terri Leszczyszyn
Michelle Mantooth
Flossie Rose-Drociuk
Vivian B. Smith
Ruby W. Sonnett

The Mary E. Leonard Student Scholarship is presented each year to the applicant best fulfilling the criteria required by SCSCLS. As a currently enrollee MLT or MT student, the recipient must validate that the award monies of $500 are utilized for school fees. The 2002-2003 MT recipient is: April T. Singleton, Palmetto Baptist Medical Center, Columbia, SC.

Keys to the Future

This award recognizes new members who have less than three years of membership, or who were previously inactive in our state, but have recently become more involved. For 2002-2003 recipient is Tanya Spells.

SCSCLS Donald O. Cox Vendor Service Award

The Donald O. Cox Vendor Service award is presented to the vendor who has served the organization and supported its goals and activities over the years by participation at events, sponsorship of activities, and/or membership in the organization, when eligible. The vendors were recognized as a bridge between the clinical laboratory and the business world and, as such, have a very crucial role in the success of our professional society. The 2002-2003 recipient: John J. O'Connor II (Sean).

SCSCLS Member of the Year

This is the highest honored bestowed on a state member. This individual is recognized for past achievements and commitment to the society that sometimes spans many years and several levels of participation. A engraved plaque carved into the shape of the state of South Carolina was presented by the SCSCLS President, Michelle Mantooth, to the 2002-2003 recipient: Mary P. Breci

Expenses

Code/What	Budget
110 President	$100.00
President-Elect 120, Secretary 130, Treasurer 140, Past-President 150, Pins 211, Student Board Member 213, Constitution and Bylaws 220, Student Forum 230, Student Board Dues 231, Finance 250, Publications 270, Operating Procedures 272, Nominations 273, Government Affairs 280, Pins for Sale 451, Legislative Day 502, National Lab Week 602, Area I 620, Area II 630, Area III 640, Postage 710, Supplies 750, Stationary 751, Miscellaneous Expense 900	$0
Membership Development 210	$50.00
PACE 240	$125
Awards 260	$250.00
Scholarships 261	$500.00
Newsletter 271	$130.00
Region III Dues 401	$203.00
Gifts 440	$50
Region III Host 441	$200.00
National White Elephant 442	$50.00
Reg III Travel 501	$300.00
National Delegates 503	$2,400.00
Spring Meeting Seed 601	$455.00
Student Activity 603	$300.00
Host Regional III 610	$300.00
Total Expenses	$5,413
Income Code	Budget
Active Members Dues 210	$650.00
MT Today (Advance) 410	$400.00
Spring Meeting 601	$1,354.00
Checking Interest 701	$12.00
Student 230, Pins 451, Region III 610, Student Activities 604, Investments 702, Misc. Income 900	$0
Janus Money Market	$3,000.00
Total Income	$5,416.00

The ASCLS Government Affairs Committee has been active in several areas since the Annual Meeting:

State Contacts Each GAC member has been assigned as liaison to one of the ASCLS regions. The assignments are as follows:
Region I Jim Griffith Region II  Judy Davis Region III  Lester Hardegree Region IV  Joan Longberry Region V  Cindy Johnson Region VI  Kathy Leinenkugel Region VII  Kathy Hansen Region VIII  Linda Comeaux Region IX  Dana Duzan Region X  Bill Kassel

The GAC liaisons have been working to contact the state government affairs chair (if there is one) and the state president to introduce their role, supply contact information for that state's senators and congressmen if needed, and alert the states to be prepared for lobbying alerts that need rapid response, especially the ongoing Medicare Copay issue. State presidents in states without a state GAC chair have been given the option of appointing another contact person for the GAC. We hope to strengthen the network, and use e-mail for communication almost exclusively, given the short time frames on most requests for contacting lawmakers or providing input.

Licensure: The GAC has a subcommittee that has collected nearly all the existing state licensure bills, and is reviewing them. Based on the results of that review, we expect to suggest revisions to the ASCLS Model Licensure Bill.

Legislation: The Medicare Reform Bills that include the prescription drug benefit, relief for rural hospitals, and the laboratory co-pay continue to be worked on by the conference committee. At this point, information from Don Lavanty indicates that Representatives Thomas and Tauzin are holding firm to the House version (no copay) and Senator Grassley is adamant that the final bill should contain the copay (as in the Senate version).

Earlier Don had indicated that he expected the White House to step in to try to get the conference committee to come to agreement. However, AARP is not satisfied with either version of the prescription drug benefit, so it is unclear which version the White House would choose to back.

Several ASCLS members attended the Washington G-2 Lab Institute October 9-11, including Barbara Brown, Elissa Passiment, Judy Davis, Dana Duzan, Judy Hoover, Carolyn Snyder, and me. The American Association of Bioanalysts (AAB), a member of the Laboratory Coalition, planned a very impromptu Hill visit on Friday, October 10. Two busloads of people (about 110 people, including all of the ASCLS people listed) went to the Senate and dropped off literature opposing the co-pay. Even without appointments, some of us were able to see staff members, including one person from Iowa who saw Senator Grassley's health staffer.

Elissa Passiment and I are planning a broadcast email to all ASLCS members (not just those on the GAC network) early in the week of October 13, as the weeks of October 13 and 20 will be critical ones to the work of the conference committee.

While the co-pay continues to be the focus of most of our attention, we continue to do what we can to secure some education funding under Title VII. The president's proposed budget zeroed out all allied health education funding; the House is trying to restore a small amount. GAC member Linda Comeaux has done a great deal of work with one of the Colorado Congressional offices on this issue.

Regulatory: The HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued its work plan for 2004. It includes several items of interest to the laboratory.

• Laboratory Proficiency Testing: OIG will assess laboratory compliance with CLIA requirements to participate in proficiency testing, one of the primary mechanisms for ensuring quality testing. Medicare pays over $4 billion annually for clinical laboratory services, all of which must meet CLIA requirements.
• Clinical Laboratory Testing Outside Certified Specialties: OIG will determine the extent to which Medicare paid for any testing outside the scope of a laboratory's CLIA certification. Laboratories must be certified for each specialty in which testing is conducted; however, certifying additional specialties can raise the cost of certification. Medicare currently does not compare billed testing with CLIA specialty certification before paying claims. They will compare claims with certification records to quantify any improper payments and lost CLIA certification fees, as well as evaluate existing programmatic controls.
• Hospital Laboratory Services: OIG will evaluate whether hospitals separately billed Medicare for laboratory services that were already included in their ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) composite rate. Under Medicare's composite rate reimbursement system, ESRD facilities are reimbursed at 100% of their costs. Because laboratory services are paid for under the composite rate, hospitals should not separately bill for those services.  Another item on the work plan not specifically targeted at the laboratory may have impact nonetheless
• Use of Modifiers with National Correct Coding Initiative Edits: OIG will determine whether claims were paid appropriately when modifiers were used to bypass National Correct Coding Initiative Edits. The initiative, one of CMS's tools for detecting and correcting improper billing, is designed to provide Medicare Part B carriers with code pair edits for use in reviewing claims. A provider may include a modifier to allow payment for both services within the code pair under certain circumstances. In 2001, Medicare paid $565 million to providers who included the modifier with code pairs within the National Correct Coding Initiative. OIG will determine whether modifiers were used appropriately.

This material will be discussed in more detail in a future Washington Beat column.

More OIG Activity: In the Federal Register of 9/15/03, the OIG published a proposal to examine billing practices. Laboratories may be held guilty of fraud and abuse if their charges to the Medicare program are more than 120% of their charges to other payers. In this proposal, charges are interpreted to mean "payment accepted", so if a laboratory has HMO contracts with deep discounts, this could be a problem. CMS hopes that this initiative would result in some laboratories billing Medicare less than the fee schedule amounts for some tests.

One of the most difficult things about this is that it is difficult for many laboratories to get accurate information about what reimbursement is on a test-by-test basis, in order to compare to the Medicare fee schedule. With the number of tests on a charge master, and the number of payers that we deal with, this could be an administrative nightmare.

This is our next critical issue after the co-pay. Comments on the proposal are due November 14. GAC plans to draft ASCLS' response well in advance of that date, so that we can put talking points on the web site for members to write their own letters as well.

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED and ARTICLES REQUESTED